Thursday, 11 August 2016

#VoteRemain

Not much has changed during my blogging hiatus this summer, except for, y'know, the UK leaving the European Union, the prime minister resigning, and Boris Johnson ricocheting around like a political ping pong ball covered in fluff. As voting day drew near on this massive country-wide decision, I got the deepest sense of fear at the possibility of an impending reality without the kinship of our fellow Europeans, a relationship that I both see as a big positive personally, but more broadly representing the idea that we cannot be an island [at least proverbially], so I decided to get to work.
Having watched the EU referendum television debates with keen interest, I decided to draw some of the faces of the Remain campaigns to spread some of their messages of hope, peace and warning against the toxic fear-mongering blindness of Leave. This is just my interpretation of what I heard and understood, of course, but this is politics afterall, and there felt like no space to be on the fence with such a highly charged campaign of hate emerging on the other side. I took quotes that meant something to me from party leaders such as Ruth Richardson and Tim Farron, along with Major of London Sadiq Khan and others, and distributed them online on 23rd June.

As we now know, a very split country thereabouts said that they probably didn't want to be in the EU anymore when they entered the polling booth, and for a lot of us that meant that lies had triumphed over the truth. But, that of course is not the whole story. With 75% of young people and 80% of those in the creative industry voting to remain, it fee;s like a film grounding to consider how we use our creativity to welcome those unlike us and create community cohesion and acceptance using the arts. It sucks for now, and for some sadly it is a truly scary reality, but Brexit can also be a wake up call for Britain to look after one another, for politicians to decentralise power, for a new generation to carve their own way for a brighter future. Or, at least for Boris to get a new haircut.

Greetings & Salutations

Here you will find a creative account of my illustrated life with a shifting emphasis on WORK, REST and PLAY; encouraging professional development, experimentation and wellbeing as key components of creative practice.